our Winter Term & some mid-year thoughts on homeschooling

We continued our bird watching by setting up a feeding station b/f the cold weather came.

It came.  Their first real snow.



They did not even have winter coats or warm quilts for their beds b/f we lived here. 

Snow suits may be on the horizon- at least for the child who continues to give us new ways to use duct tape.  He went out w/ mittens on but they promptly fell off.  He played until his hands were red & frozen and he was crying but he refused to come in.  Hence, the tape.

It was already melting here but we managed to make a snow man.

We started "feeding" the soil in our little garden of 3 raised beds, kitchen scraps/compost that we turn in the soil every few days.



We read the original Little House series and the Rose Wilder series. We did some related hand crafts including candle making, wood working, and sewing. These are the candles above.

We ate a lot of S'mores while Dad was still here to direct. 

And foods from the Little House Cookbook, including our Christmas Eve dinner of chicken pie.

The actual wood craft had nothing to do w/ pioneers or westward expansion.

Scary.

Then came Daddy Departure Day.  We all went to the airport.

We did not do any math or language arts lessons during our extended Winter Term, mostly b/c I was busy w/ Christmas prep and then deployment prep and then I wanted us to have fun w/ Jesse while he was home for a few weeks b/f leaving the country.  Our summer break may be shorter this year but we will work our new school year around when Jesse gets home in late August (hopefully) anyway.

So, that is one thing I like about homeschooling- the flexibility.  I also love the sibling time, all the outdoor time, the creative time.  I know we are always bonding and making special family memories of books read together, faith shared together.

I don't like- having so much power over their little lives.  Does anyone else feel this?  Maybe I just do alot b/c they have gone to school and I remember the greater freedom within broader limits they had there.  This may be why some parents choose to homeschool but not me, not us.  It was a choice to bring them home for now b/c we believe we can give them more of what they really need right now.  But that does not mean I want to dictate their every daily decision, which sometimes it feels like b/c of the necessity of coordinating everyone's different needs and wants.  So, there are definitely some things I think homeschooling does not give them or my homeschooling does not give them right now...which I will post about another time...

when I am not so tired, which shines light on my real issue: the challenges of homeschooling w/ a toddler & infant, now while being a single parent for 6 months.  This I know, though, no school is perfect.